Sunset Bay Sanctuary

by Roxanne Snopek

  “But I’ve come all this way,” Beverly protested.

  Olivia put a hand to her temple. “I wish you’d called first.”

  “You can’t send me away.” Drops of water fell from Beverly’s hair onto her broad bosom. “Can’t I talk to her through the door at least?”

  “Fine.” Haylee took her by the arm and led her to Sage’s room. “Talk.”

  Olivia followed, hoping there would be no pyrotechnics. She wished Gayle was here to defuse the situation.

  “Sage, honey?” said Beverly, her voice trembling. “It’s Mom. I’ve been so worried about you. I didn’t realize . . . I’m so sorry . . . Please, just tell me, are you okay?”

  “Go away,” said Sage through the door.

  “You were pregnant? And you didn’t tell any of us? I’m at a loss, honey. Help me understand. I know it’s been a little chaotic at home, but I thought we were doing okay. What can I do? Tell me what to do.”

  “Go. Away.” Sage’s voice was thick with tears.

  Beverly pressed her hands together, then brought them up and pressed them against her lips. Cords stood out in her neck, muscles twitched and the ridges of her throat jumped as she swallowed. “I’m so sorry, baby,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Haylee, make her go away.”

  Sage was crying hard now but Olivia didn’t miss the fact that she’d appealed to Haylee for help.

  “You heard her.” Haylee took Beverly’s arm and hauled her away from the door. “She’s a little too busy with her own crisis to deal with yours right now.”

  “I’ll call tomorrow,” Beverly said through her tears. “I know this is a terrible situation, but I love my daughter. You have to believe that. I love you, Sage,” she called, before Haylee closed the door on her. They watched at the window as Beverly got into her car and slowly drove off the yard. Olivia wished she’d kept in better touch with Sage’s adoptive mother. Maybe she could have prevented this. How had things gone so bad? What could she have done differently? “I’m going to lie down in the living room,” she said to Haylee. “I’ve had about enough drama for one day.” But before she could escape, the door to Sage’s room opened and the girl came out. “Thanks, Haylee,” she said. Her face was shiny and splotched with red. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for her to come.”

  Olivia doubted that. Sage desperately needed her mother, a mother, any mother, probably had for some time.

  “What’s going on with you and your parents, Sage?” Haylee said. “We’ve respected your privacy but enough’s enough. It’s time to talk.”

  “I didn’t tell you,” Sage burst out, “because I thought you’d send me back. Maybe not you, Olivia.” She shot a dark look at Haylee. “But you would have. You didn’t want me here in the first place. You never wanted me.”

  Olivia heard Haylee hiss as the barb struck home. She was so tired and her head hurt. But before she could respond, Daphne appeared. By the thunderous expression on her face, Olivia knew she’d overheard Sage’s comment.

  She went to the girl, slung an arm over her shoulders and squeezed lightly. “You’ll want to be careful how you speak about my Haylee, child. She’s very precious to me. She and Olivia made a difficult decision together, a long time ago. It was a horrible time for them and they did what they thought was right. What they thought was the very best thing, for you. Not them. You. Keep that thought in your head when you’re casting about for blame.”

  Sage tore herself free from the embrace and turned her back on Daphne. “That perfect couple you chose? They split up when I was three. Did you know that?”

  She glared at Olivia.

  Haylee whirled around to join her. “Liv? Did you know?”

  Olivia pressed the heel of her hand into her forehead. “What was I supposed to do? They were, they are, her parents.”

  “Ha!” Sage’s lip curled. “Joint custody is just another way of saying neither one wanted me. I went back and forth for years and it was okay until they started their real families. Now I’ve got six half-siblings, three on each side, and what a joke that is because I’m not actually related to any of them. I don’t even have a room at my dad’s place. His new wife is incubating another one, fertile as a compost pile,” she said with a shudder, “so I sleep on the couch in his office. My mom is totally taken up with the triplets she paid fifty thousand dollars to have with her new husband. She’s only upset I’m gone because now she has to pay a babysitter. It’s ironic. I ran away because of too many babies and here I am, with one of my own.”

  Olivia knew Gayle would say it was completely predictable. Sage wanted someone of her own to love, someone who was completely hers. Someone who would never leave her.

  Probably the worst reason to have a child, but how many were brought into the world with the best of intentions? If not for unplanned pregnancies, the human race would have died out long ago, yet they stumbled onward, living and dying in moments, tiny pieces of an immense puzzle that they couldn’t even see.

  Liv’s heart broke for this poor lost girl and the lost girl before her. She’d do whatever it took to make sure Sal didn’t end up another lost girl.

  “Your parents,” Haylee said, clearly struggling to make sense of the story, “didn’t even know you were pregnant?”

  Sage shrugged. “Liv didn’t know either until I went into labor. People don’t see what they don’t want to see. I’ve been gone for two months. I told Mom I was with Dad and I told Dad I was with Mom. Neither of them thought to check in on me or they’d have figured it out.”

  “How did you find us?” asked Haylee.

  “It wasn’t hard.” Sage gave her a hard look. “We could have found each other years ago.”

  Olivia sighed. Haylee had resisted meeting the prospective parents of her baby despite the social worker encouraging a relationship, insisting a clean break was better for everyone.

  But she knew now that she’d made a mistake in allowing Haylee to make that decision. If they’d preserved a relationship with the Welles family, maybe they could have intervened sooner, been there to provide something for Sage that her parents couldn’t.

  But even as she thought about it, she knew it wouldn’t have worked. What would Haylee have done with a confused three-year-old? Or five-year-old? Or twelve-year-old?

  “I wanted to have my baby with someone who would take care of us.” Sage’s voice went from that of a street-hardened teen to that of a lonely girl. “When I figured out you guys were the same people who ran Sanctuary Ranch, I knew that’s where I had to go. You’re kind of a legend, Olivia. I see how you are with the other kids, with the horses, even the mean ones. Haylee, I’ve watched you with the dogs. You’re so . . . I thought . . . I thought . . .” She bit at a piece of chapped skin on her lip. Her shoulders hunched over and she seemed to curl into herself, as if attempting to become smaller, invisible. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter. I’m going to bed.”

  Before anyone could respond, Sage went back to her room.

  Daphne whirled on Haylee. “Aren’t you going after her?”

  Haylee lifted her hands. “And do what? Hog-tie her to the bed? Smother her with hugs and kisses? Give her a motherly talking-to? I’m out of my league here, Daff, in case you hadn’t noticed. I don’t know what she needs and I doubt I could give it, if I did. That kid is a hot mess and all I’m trying to do is not make things worse for her.”

  “You’re smarter and tougher.”

  “No, Daphne, I’m not. I can’t do this. I’m only hurting her.”

  Tears glimmered in Haylee’s eyes and she batted them away. Olivia reached for her, unable to speak.

  “It’s late.” Haylee angled away from both of them. “She’ll feel better in the morning. We’ll figure something out then.”

  Daphne watched Haylee leave the room, then looked to Olivia, the lines in her face deeper, the shadows beneath her eyes darker. “Something’s gotta give here, Livvie. This can’t go on.”

  “I know.” Olivia felt as if h
er eyes were made of crumpled cellophane, her skull of blown glass, her skin of parchment.

  When Daphne left for her own quarters, Olivia made her way to the daybed in the little sunroom off the kitchen and lowered herself carefully onto the soft pillows. Her own cabin was too far away. She just needed to rest for a few minutes, just until the throbbing subsided.

  But she fell asleep instantly. An hour later, however, she awakened, stiff and thirsty. When she padded into the kitchen for a glass of water and some aspirin, something felt off about the house. It was too quiet. Too still.

  She tiptoed down the hallway to Sage’s guest room and put her head to the door. Silence. Carefully she turned the knob and the door slid open with a creak. There was just enough light in the hallway for Olivia to make out the rumpled bedding, the portable playpen, the mat for Karma to sleep on.

  All of it empty.

  * * *

  A bang sounded on her cabin door.

  “Haylee!”

  Jewel lifted her head and gave a sleepy woof. Haylee had been tossing and turning anyway, so it only took her a moment to get to the door.

  “Sage is gone, Haylee,” Olivia said, between gasps. “The dog, the—all of them.”

  “What? She took off, again? Damn it.” Haylee grabbed a pair of jeans, scanning the floor for her running shoes. She should have known the girl would run. This was Beverly’s fault. She’d come and gotten Sage worked up. “Let’s go. She can’t have gotten far.”

  “I don’t know,” Olivia said. “This time, she’s not on foot. She took your car.”

  “What!” Haylee glanced out the window to see that yes, her vehicle was missing. “Give me your keys. We’re going after her.”

  “Not me.” Olivia handed her the truck keys and then sagged against the door, her knees buckling.

  “Liv!” Haylee grabbed her and helped her to the kitchen table. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “It’s nothing. A headache I can’t shake. But I won’t be any good out there. I’ll stay here with Daphne in case she calls. Go, bring them back. Be careful driving in this rain. We’ll deal with the rest in the morning.”

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Haylee peered into her aunt’s eyes, noting the deep shadows beneath them. She looked awful.

  “This is your battle, Haylee.” Olivia took a deep breath. “You have to find her. You have to talk to her. You have to convince her to let us help her.”

  Haylee’s chest tightened and her throat closed up. She didn’t have the right words to say to Sage. Whatever instinctive impulses nature gave mothers had passed her by, or had evaporated when they’d taken the warm, moist bundle from her in the hospital sixteen years ago.

  “I’ve got nothing for her.” She swallowed but the thickness in her voice wouldn’t go away. “Sage knows it.”

  “Bullshit.”

  Haylee blinked.

  “I had nothing for you, either, but made it, somehow. I didn’t give up on you. And I didn’t give up on myself. You have to do the same thing here. Except you actually are Sage’s mother.” She lifted her hand to keep Haylee from arguing. “So what if you don’t feel like it. Be her friend. Handle it. Find a way. You can do it. Now, I’m going back to the house. Take my truck. Go bring our girls home.”

  Haylee helped Jewel into the truck and did as Olivia asked. Her aunt was so strong that to see her struggle with anything shifted Haylee’s world and set fear simmering deep inside her. She needed Liv. Tonight, of all nights, when Sage and everything from two decades ago was coming back to haunt her, Haylee needed the woman who’d been her rock, the only thing that had kept her head above water.

  She’d never really thought about how it had been for Liv, to be saddled with an unhappy teenager.

  As she bumped over the rutted road in Liv’s truck, an image popped into her head, a dusty memory long buried but not quite forgotten. A younger version of herself, all knees and elbows, standing beside her mother’s casket, the baskets of white lilies spread over the top, their cloying, overly sweet scent filling her nose.

  And then, only a few years later, to see her father and brother laid to rest beside her. Liv had been there, that time. She’d been there and she hadn’t left Haylee for a minute.

  Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. She gritted her teeth and gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles popped.

  Jewel whined and nudged her arm, bringing her back to the present.

  She couldn’t fall apart. She wasn’t that Haylee any longer. Those years were over. She was fine. Olivia was fine. Sage would be okay. Somehow, they’d muddle through this and little Sal would grow up okay too, despite them all.

  “I’m okay, Honey-Bear.” Jewel licked her neck, then settled back in the passenger seat.

  Haylee flicked on her high beams and scanned the dark road in front of her, cursing the new moon and the rain, looking for familiar taillights. An hour was a significant head start but Sage didn’t know the roads.

  Haylee hit the gas and headed for the winding coast road, praying she’d overtake them soon.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Nestled in a beautiful natural environment, this lodge is a perfect romantic hideaway. PS: She said yes.”

  —GoinToTheChapel

  Aiden heard the ambulance roll into the bay. No sirens, no rush, always a giveaway. Behind it came a second one, with as little fanfare.

  “What have we got?” asked Aiden as they pushed in the gurneys, one after the other. Small figures, surrounded by the obligatory medical personnel, even though they’d been found unresponsive. Cold.

  “Elderly couple, looks like a planned exit. There was an empty vial of insulin beside them,” said the technician. He consulted his notes. “They lived at Beachside Villas.”

  Aiden’s blood ran cold. No. It couldn’t be.

  He rushed to the closest gurney and shoved his way through.

  Elsie.

  He touched her face. It was cold, her flesh like clay, not quite hardened yet.

  Shock and betrayal hit him like a punch to the gut. He pushed through to the second bed, yanked away the sheets and equipment.

  A version of Anton’s face greeted him, bloodless white, but younger and more at ease than it ever had been in life. As if he was sleeping peacefully in a black-and-white movie. His cheek was like carved marble beneath Aiden’s fingers.

  He’d died first, then.

  “Do you know them, Dr. Mac?”

  He shook his head in disbelief. “They’re my neighbors. They live next door to me. They used to live.”

  That didn’t mean he’d known them. Had he missed some warning signs? Had he been so distracted with his own problems that he’d ignored some vital clue that could have prevented this?

  The technician looked uncomfortable. “It’s just that, they left a note addressed to you.”

  He shoved the piece of paper at Aiden.

  “Dr. Mac,” called one of the nurses, “could you pronounce them? We’ll take care of the rest of the details.”

  Aiden glanced at his watch. There was nothing else for him to do here. He gave them an official time of death, even though he knew that the curtains had closed on his friends much earlier in the day.

  He stepped backward, retreating to his office to process this. He sat in his chair, and reluctantly opened the envelope and began reading the single sheet of lined paper.

  Dear Aiden,

  I’m so sorry to do this to you. You’ve taken such good care of my Anton. I know this comes as a dreadful surprise to you, but we couldn’t burden you with his final wishes. He was determined to end his life on his terms and I couldn’t sway him. Nor, after sixty-five years together, could I face a life without him. I hope you understand. Anton was determined and I couldn’t not deny him his final wishes.

  His only regret was being unable to say good-bye in person and I share this. You’ve been a good friend to us, and I wish we could have met you sooner.

  But Aiden, I’m taking this opportunity to send you
a message from the grave. Do not waste what time you have in bitterness and regret. You have a chance at happiness. I think you know what I’m talking about. She’ll be resistant but she has her own reasons. Be patient, but persistent. And understand that the sweetest love is always tinged with fear of loss. How could it be otherwise?

  Be brave, Aiden. You are a wonderful man and you’ll be a wonderful husband and father. Don’t cheat yourself or the world of this joy.

  With love,

  Elsie and Anton

  PS: I have a favor to ask of you and I hope you’ll take it for the compliment it is. Bette Davis will be very lonely with us gone and she’s too old for change. Will you look after her for us, for whatever time she has left? She likes you. And your place will be familiar to her.

  Thank you for this.

  PPS: My pie recipes are in the cupboard next to the sink. I think you’d make a great baker.

  * * *

  Aiden’s palms were wet against the leather steering wheel, but whether from perspiration or rain, he didn’t know, and didn’t care. His hands were steady. That’s all that mattered.

  Water gushed down onto his windshield. His headlights cut a pathetic swath through the black night, illuminating the thin, relentless rain and the fog that came with it.

  It was an ugly night to be on the road.

  He was on his way to Haylee’s place. The shock of losing Elsie and Anton had shaken him more than he expected. Elsie’s not-so-subtle comments had hit the mark, though. He had to tell Haylee how he felt about her. Maybe if he did, she’d open up to him. Maybe he’d finally understand just what was going on between her and Sage.

  His cell phone rang through the hands-free device in his car.

  He hit the button. “Aiden McCall.”

  “Aiden, it’s Olivia. Where are you?”

  “Olivia?” She sounded faint but maybe the rain was interfering with the signal. “I can hardly hear you. What’s wrong?”